Dakota Johnson has said film financiers are “really shady sometimes” while detailing her “love-hate relationship” with producing.
Johnson made the admission during an ‘In Conversation’ session at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival on Friday (December 5), in which she discussed running her own production company, Tea Time Pictures.
The Materialists star founded the production label in 2019, and said her move to producing highlighted a “love-hate” relationship with her career, and admitted she felt trapped “in an internal battle all the time” while working in the film industry.
“I’m in a love-hate relationship with my job in all aspects,” she said, per Variety. “It’s exhausting. Producing, you see behind the curtain, and it’s really ugly. I don’t like it. Also, realising that financiers are really shady sometimes is heartbreaking.
“As a producer, it’s heartbreaking. As an actress, it’s heartbreaking. But [my job] it’s also quite fulfilling, and I’m very grateful I get to do both.”
Pedro Pascal and Dakota Johnson in ‘Materialists’. CREDIT: A24
It follows similar comments she made about the state of the film industry earlier this year following the failure of her Marvel film Madame Web.
Set in the Spider-man universe, Johnson starred in the title role of a paramedic who develops mysterious powers of clairvoyance, connecting her to three strangers. The film co-starred Sydney Sweeney, and was a failure both commercially and critically.
Speaking to The Los Angeles Times while promoting The Materialists, the actor remarked: “It wasn’t my fault … There’s this thing that happens now where a lot of creative decisions are made by committee. Or made by people who don’t have a creative bone in their body. And it’s really hard to make art that way. Or to make something entertaining that way”.
At the film festival, she continued to look back at her career, and said she’s still learning “what’s right” for her.
“I’ve definitely been persuaded to do things in the past that I realize in retrospect weren’t right for me,” she said. “But that’s also part of the experience, and I’m lucky I have a job. Now, I’m looking at: ‘Where’s this person in me, and how can I stretch myself? ‘I want to evolve more and, as an actress, go to places I didn’t think I was able to go. There’s a lot that I need to let go of.”
‘Madame Web’ CREDIT: Sony
Elsehwhere in the conversation, she also spoke at length about long-time collaborator Luca Guadagnino, who she worked with on films like Suspiria and A Bigger Splash. “I’ll work with Luca forever. For the rest of my life, I’ll work with him. Working with him when I was so young was… Oh, I didn’t realize that I could go to these places within myself and make these kinds of movies.”
As for the near future, Johnson is set to work on a slate of projects that include her directorial debut A Tree Is Blue starring Charli XCX, Jessica Alba and Cha Cha Real Smooth collaborator Vanessa Burghardt. Asked about what she’s drawn to in terms of producing projects, Johnson said she’s drawn mostly to “female-driven, human experience projects.”
“I want to make movies about women and people who are going through some sort of evolution,” she added. “We are drawn to filmmakers that are bold, writers that are honest and risk-taking, and we want to move the needle in terms of emotion and creativity and entertainment.”
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